Free Adobe Illustrator Alternative For Mac
Adobe Illustrator, now in it's 21st version with CC 2017, is the daddy when it comes to the creating and editing of Scalable Vector Graphics. First shipping for the Apple Macintosh way back in the January of 1987, Adobe Illustrator is as mature and feature packed as they come.
In the May of 2012 Adobe's monthly and yearly subscriptions went live as Adobe Creative Cloud, sold alongside Creative Suite 6, allowing choice amongst designers between a one-time expense or a cheaper, subscription-based model that allowed them to stretch out their finances better in the short term.
Adobe Illustrator CS6 for Mac is a powerful and agile program that gives you all the tools you need to complete any type of graphic design project. Inkscape is a professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It’s free and open source. It is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. Jul 30, 2018 Although Adobe Illustrator is one of the best tools to make vector graphics, it’s indeed expensive. Fortunately, there are some free alternatives available for designers in the market. Contrary to raster graphics, vector graphics utilize mathematical expressions to create lines, colors and various. Adobe Illustrator Alternatives Inkscape When looking for an alternative to Adobe Illustrator, this open-source vector program was at the top of every list and result. BEST ALTERNATIVES TO ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR1. Corel Draw The best alternative to Adobe Illustrator is by far Corel Draw.Unfortunately because it is a name brand and is so good it isn’t really that much cheaper. More than 6 alternatives to choose: Inkscape, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and moreSketch is the second Adobe Illustrator alternative I suggest you check out. They were founded in 2008 and based in the Hague, NL.
However a year later, Adobe announced that they were going subscription only across their entire portfolio of graphic design products. CS was dead, leaving Creative Cloud as the only option for a graphic design software for graphic designers to stick to their much-loved Adobe products and use their old file formats. Of course, they can go and subscribe to Illustrator CC at any time but maybe they want to save the money and switch to another vector graphics editor instead.
But all was not bad, Adobe has recently announced that they have smashed their sales and subscriptions projections more than a quarter earlier than expected and the customers are happy too, getting the same great Adobe software with a more constant stream of updates and added features, albeit at a larger cost long term.
However, we here at VectorGuru became very interested in the potential Illustrator alternatives, programs that could compete with Illustrator in both features and price and have decided to create this list of the Top Adobe Illustrator Alternatives some of them free and open source some of them are paid.
You will find a range of programs to suit any need you may have, covering whatever operating system that you are on, be it macOS, Windows or Linux, there is something here for everybody. Ranging from free alternative and from No Cost upwards, there is also something for the budget conscious or those just curious to see what else is out there.
Lets start with our list of software and services as an alternative to Illustrator.
Apr 22, 2014 Quick tutorial on how to export HD video with the H.264, Mpeg-4 codec in Premiere Pro Creative Cloud - the same process works in Premiere Pro CS6. Step 1 – Selecting the media option to export a video. In order to start off the process of exporting a video or a still frame in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, you will firstly need to go to the file menu, move over to the option titled “export” and select the “Media” option in order to proceed further. How to export to mpeg on adobe premiere pro cs6 for mac. Dec 29, 2011 I'm using Premiere Pro CS5 on Windows 7 x64 and editing HDV 1080 60i footage. When I go to export, I go to File->Export->Media-> and check the box 'Match Sequence Settings' (because I want no loss of quality/an MPEG file)and under the summary arrow it says Quality 50 and under the video tab everything becomes grayed out and I am unable to move the quality slider.
Gravit
Gravit is a web alternative for Illustrator that runs directly in your browser and which offers all of the main features you would expect from a vector editor. You can export your art in JPG, PNG or SVG. Additionally all of your raw files are backed up by Gravit into their Gravit-Cloud – its a really awesome tool.
The user interface is extremely easy to use with an easy learning curve for those who already have some experience in Vector Editing, however, it shouldn’t take long for the newcomer to master Gravit.
Gravit can also be added as an extension to the Chrome browser.
- Website: Gravit
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: Web App for all platforms
Vecteezy Editor
Vecteezy Editor is a fully featured yet easy to use browser-based Vector Editing tool. Pre-loaded with over 800 fonts and over 25,000 design elements, Vecteezy editor has an almost infinite about of customization options.
Built directly into their website, Vecteezy Editor allows you to not only customise Vectors you choose from Vecteezy themselves, but to also upload and edit your own before downloading in SVG, PNG or JPG formats. Its a great image editing tool and works on Windows Mac and everything running a Webbrowser.
Built with ease of use in mind, Vecteezy Editor is as simple as point and click for beginners but has more than sufficient tools to be used by any graphic professional looking for a free and easy way to modify their Vectors.
- Website: Vecteezy Editor
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: Web App for All Platforms
Gravit Designer 3.1
Gravit Designer finally has native apps with Gravit Designer 3.1. Available on multiple platforms including macOS, Windows 10 and Linux.
As a native app, Gravit Designer is is able to get around some of the limitations of the web app version, such as managing multiple pages in one document and accessing System Fonts. The user interface has also had a makeover, making it much more detailed and mature in comparison to the original Gravit and with both Light and Dark mode, working at night is no longer hard on your eyes and with new Gravit Cloud integration you can now use your files across all platforms and online!
Check out our standalone Gravit Designer 3.1 Review and find out all about this latest update!
- Website: Gravit Designer 3.1
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: macOS, Windows 10, Linux, Chrome OS. Web App for all Platforms
Vectr – good Online Illustrator Alternative
Vectr is in the same calibre as Gravit Designer, coming as a native app on Windows, macOS, Linux and as a web app and the functionality is equal to that of Gravit Designer. Its actually one of the best web based illustrator alternative.
However, Vectr does have an ace up its sleeve, it's plan, to be the google docs of vector editing, allowing teams to share the same instance and edit things together!
The Vectr web app is currently only running fully in the Chrome browser, however it has a plug in available that allows for offline functionality.
Each graphic in Vectr is given its own unique URL and these can then be embedded in existing designs that will then change according to any changes made to the source file. Vectr also supports multiple pages and works directly with the SVG format. It also let you do vector drawing and gives you the option to edit scalable vector files.
The user interface of Vectr has a very Adobe feel to it, making it a fairly smooth transition and they also offer a plug in that allows for direct editing of a vector in WordPress. You will also find that the creators of Vectr feel that documentation is of the highest importance and you will find video tutorials that explain most things, making it as easy for new comers to learn as it is for those coming from Adobe or one it's other competitors.
- Website: Vectr
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: macOS, Windows and Linux. Web App for all platforms
Inkscape – Best Free Illustrator Alternative
After over 2 years of development, Inkscape has recently released version 0.92 of its Vector Editor. But with the amount of innovation, the 2 years of development time is completely understandable.
Inkscape have made it a priority to be standard compliant and in order to stay within the rules of the CSS standard, the resolution has been changed from 90 to 96 dpi and the software itself provides multiple options for converting older Inkscape files to work with the newer standard. Mainly the developers have been focusing on displaying as many as SVG2 and CSS3 properties as possible, however not all of these properties can be changed via the user interface. Also, complex grid trajectories do not require any kind of tricks, plug ins or special settings, they work perfectly as a standard function.
As open source software, Inkscape is available free of charge across all the platforms its created for, including macOS, Windows and Linux.
Inkscape is the oldest piece of software on our list and its user interface reflects this, being more complex than others, however it plays in the front of the pack when it comes to features. We did not include the free graphic software Gimp here, because it is not very well working with vector file formats such as SVG or EPS.
- Website: Inkscape
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: macOS, Windows and Linux
Xara Photo & Graphic Design 365
Xara Photo and Design is an easy to use, quick to learn software similar to CorelDRAW and Inkscape in regards to its interface and with full compliance to industry standards, Xara is quite a capable tool for all the graphic designers out there.
With many great features including non-destructive photo handling, intelligent scaling and a built in bit map tracer, all built in to one easy to use package, Xara is definitely worth checking out.
- Website: Xara Photo & Graphics Designer
- Price: $69.99 with one year of updates.
- Compatibility: Windows
Let's Check Out Some More Known and Unknown Alternatives to Adobe Illustrator
BoxySVG
BoxySVG is a free solution for the fast processing of SVG files. Visually the app follows a gamers approach, which gives it great ease of use however limits the features set.
Coming as a native app for macOS and as a Chrome Extension, you can also visit the website to get an overview of the functionality and learn the basics with tutorials, editable demo's with prefabricated SVG files for you to practice with.
In addition to SVG and SVGZ formats, which you can import and export with BoxySVG and the app also supports JPG and PNG formats too. Working purely on its value as an SVG editor, BoxySVG is definitely one to give a try!
- Website: BoxySVG
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: macOS, Web App for all Platforms
SVG-Edit
SVG-Edit is a web app based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript and is mainly targeted towards people who want to edit their SVG files on the web.
With no server side functionality, SVG-Edit requires you to download the tool from Github, however it will run locally in any semi-modern web browser. It's recommended that you have at least some basic knowledge of web development before tackling SVG-Edit.
- Website: Demo – Github
- Price: Free
- Compatibility: Web App for All Platforms
Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a commercial alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Created by Serif, Affinity Designer started out as a macOS only app, however since November 2016 Affinity Designer has been cross platform, working on both macOS and Windows with exactly the same functionality.
In version 1.5, Affinity Designer expanded its target group to include interface and web designers. The software itself providing complete symbol and asset management, and features such as snapping or forcing defined alignments, making it that much easier for web designers to work with and with a user interface similar to Illustrator, Affinity Designer is very easy for those with previous knowledge to pick up and has it's own handy approaches to help you with whatever your task for the day is.
Affinity Designer works with what they call personas, such as the export persona, with which you can control the export of your work in a variety of formats and resolutions. Affinity designer will also take care of backing up and creating folders too.
Currently available in 8 languages, English (US and UK localisation), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Japanese and Chinese (Simplified), Affinity Designer will select the correct language at start up and you can also change it yourself through the apps preferences page.
- Website: Affinity Designer
- Price: 49.99 Euros
- Compatibility: macOS and Windows
CorelDRAW X8
CorelDRAW was much more widespread in earlier years than it is today, but with is richness in features and development maturity it still has its loyal followers and has allowed CoralDRAW to keep its hard earned place in the market.
Following with Adobe's pricing structure, CorelDRAW allows you to purchase a licence or subscribe to a monthly subscription service. However, CorelDRAW is sold as a suit of programs, including their Photoshop alternative Photo-Paint X8, a Font Manager, PowerTrace for vectorising, Capture to create Screenshots and a Website Creator for putting together websites. Also included is thousands of cliparts, images, fonts, templates, fillings, frames and patterns, making for a great value package.
- Website: CorelDRAW X8
- Price: 699 Euros or 19.95 Euros per month for their subscription package.
- Compatibility: Windows
Sketch
If your designing on your Mac, there are really only 2 main commercial competitors to Adobe and Sketch is one of them.
Sketch works with an open API that allows anybody to develop plug ins. with this in place, Sketch has developed an extremely active community very quickly who share Templates, Tutorials, Plug ins and much more
- Website: Sketch
- Price: 114.84 Euros per year (If you want updates after the 12 months are over)
- Compatibility: macOS
Autodesk Graphic for Mac
Some older Mac users may recognise the name iDraw, a few years ago iDraw was purchased by Autodesk and rebranded to Autodesk Graphic.
Graphic allows for quick modifications of vector graphics in a low priced package, however the Mac version has not ben updated since October 2015 and are unaware of any being in the works.
Autodesk does however take good care of the iOS version, specifically for the iPad Pro, iPad and iPhone with iOS users and with iCloud support, you are able to edit your vectors in the office or on the go with your changes synchronised across all devices.
On the Mac, Graphic supports the importing and exporting of files in SVG, PDF and Photoshops proprietary PSD formats.
- Website: Autodesk Graphic
- Price: macOS 29.99 Euros, iOS 8.99 Euros
- Compatibility: macOS, iOS (Purchased Separately)
Final Thoughts on the Top Adobe Illustrator Alternative
So there you have it, that was our list of The top Adobe Illustrator Alternatives. And now that you've picked up some great software, why not have a look for some cheap, high-quality vector graphics to play with? You need vector graphics to give this babies a try? Our friends over at VectorFresh recently opened their doors and have an Early Bird Discount of 55% on their yearly subscription, here's a quick run down of the benefits:
- One year membership, 1,200 images and no limit on your daily downloads (Up to 100 per month) for $49, that's a huge 55% discount!
- All of the Vector Graphics on offer are in .EPS format and can be completely customised.
- All of the shapes can be easily resized with no loss in quality.
- All of the illustrations on offer can be used for commercial purposes, for yourself or on behalf of a client.
- They can also be used on their own or as part of a larger project.
So go ahead and check out VectorFresh today, or use our handy search bar below to find the perfect vector graphic for you.
Happy Editing!
Want to learn how to use Illustrator but don’t want to subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud? Or need to access its features on the go while using someone else’s computer? With Gravit you get a lot of the key features offered in expensive standards like Illustrator or Fireworks.
Best of all, Gravit is completely free. You just have to sign up for an account to use it. Gravit includes basic vector tools: a pen tool, line tool, and a Bezigon tool, as well as shapes including a rectangle, ellipse, triangle, polygon, and star.
Beyond creating shapes, Gravit also has tools similar to Illustrator’s pathfinder and alignment tools, as well as layers, and you can add text and images to your design.
When creating a new document, you can choose the size (including handy presets like Facebook and Twitter covers, standard print sizes, and more) or you can select from some pre-existing templates. These templates, together with Gravit’s showcase, give a great idea of how much you can get out of this web app.
Adobe Illustrator For Mac Price
Once you’re done creating your image, you can export it to your computer as JPG, PNG, or SVG. You can also save it online in your Gravit account with the layers in tact and come back to it at a later time.
For an introduction to Gravit’s features, check out the video below:
Have you tried out Gravit? How do you think it compares to Adobe Illustrator? Let us know in the comments.
Explore more about: Adobe Illustrator, Image Editor.
Adobe Illustrator
Hi There & thanks for this article very helpful! I was in a rush to find a good alternative to Illustrator as I needed to draw few logos and I have to say that, after few trials on Vectr and Youidraw, some tears of joy nearly came up when I read this article and once I tried Gravit!
This is an excellent free alternative to Illustrator using the same commands so easy to very quickly handy, used online without any bug, very friendly environment and I can't believe this is bloody free - so it's not even a 30 days trial!
Of course, depending on which version you use of Illustrator, Gravit will provide the essentials - but professional essentials for free are hard to find - so for me this is amazing!
Thanks for sharing this article Nancy, and thanks Gravit for your great work on this! Cheers, CedPeople are getting frustrated since adobe started to rent out their product, but there are no possible replacement yet. I don't mind paying for a great product with a reasonable price.
Give Inkscape a try. Many research and reviews say it is an alternative to Illustrator (these research and reviews are done by professionals who switched from Illustrator to Inkscape.) I also find it great.
I have not tried it yet but will soon thanks for the tip though Ill be back with a review!
Chalres
This article is incredibly misleading and shows an incredible lack of knowledge. If you want to learn to use Illustrator for free, how about using the free version of Illustrator that Adobe gives out? You can download any of the Adobe CS2 products for free. They have been free for years. You will not learn how to use Illustrator by using a free alternative, that notion is preposterous and incredibly misleading. That's like saying learn to use Photoshop or Illustrator with Corel Draw. Doesn't work.
They don't exactly give that out. The serials were released by mistake and by the point Adobe found out it was already all over the web.
Granted it asks, but it's more than obvious selling the point of 'Free'. Though some of the key features this is offering, very similar to Adobe's, it is selling an alternative without having to subscribe. Nothing misleading about this article. Key Point in this article is 'Free Alternative'. Not Adobe Illustrator guide.
To say that Gravit is an 'alternative' to Illustrator, is like saying that a skateboard is an alternative to a car.
If you used AI for any length of time, you probably know that it has features and toolsets that were developed for nearly over three decades (first release being in 1988)! You can't simply say that a browser based app that can draw a few boxes and ellipses is an 'alternative' to such a robust program.
You might say that Gravit is an alternative to Method Draw (http://editor.method.ac) or Janvas (http://www.janvas.com/site/home_en.php) - which are both browser based vector tools, but they are not even the same league as Adobe Illustrator just because they have a Pen Tool.
For anyone asking, Gravit supports EPS and SVG import along with standard image formats. We are working on adding PDF export to our already existing SVG, PNG and JPG export.
Can Gravit open all files created with Illustrator and vice versa?
The problem with Gravit vs. Illustrator is the same as GIMP vs. Photoshop. The free products may suffice for the casual user but the pros need Adobe products.
Inkscape is great, and I use it all the time, but as a technology instructor for an elementary school that is equipped with Chromebooks, this is a very welcome app. Inkscape cannot be used on Chromebooks due to the fact that it needs to be installed on a local hard drive. Previously, Vector Paint was the only option I could find. Will be trying this one out today!
I just tried inkscape and it SUCKS! Click on a tool in the toolbox and nothing happens. I got stuck in the node tool and no matter how many times I clicked on the select arrow tool, nothing happened, I was still in the node tool. only reason I got into node tool was I used F2--clicking on it did NOTHING. After a few hours of going thru the tutorials only to have option boxes ignore being clicked on to change everything from stroke width to whatever, I gave up and uninstalled it. what an enormous piece of crap and I used Illustrator for years before it became a rent instead of buy cash cow. 50 a month to RENT it?!?!? puh-leez. still trying to find a decent replacement and inkscape is not it.
If you are on a Mac, you could give Affinity Designer a try.
40 €, no rent, many features and professionally developed.Or PC now :-)
Affinity is also on PC now :-)
I already use Inkscape, but this does sound like a great entry level way into illustrator. I will give it a shot to try it. Thanks Nancy
For those interested, also check out Inkscape. Very capable piece of cross platform software.